tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6693471143220681808.post4865457893455396439..comments2023-12-18T07:59:16.525-05:00Comments on Hats and Rabbits: Bigger Than TrumpChris Matarazzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17885109959459471509noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6693471143220681808.post-35177424159512976962016-11-19T16:24:54.567-05:002016-11-19T16:24:54.567-05:00Thanks for this call for transcendence, Chris. As ...Thanks for this call for transcendence, Chris. As someone who left the president line blank on his ballot, I appreciate it.<br /><br />It's funny: the place I live now is county agricultural reserve, created in the 1980s by liberals, occupied largely by conservative farmers and rural people, and run according to tight development rules that benefit all of us. The county's social services reach out here only on paper, so locals have stepped in to fill the need. Our town's conservative Baptist church hosts the food pantry of the non-denominational charity that feeds 200 families, helps people who fall on hard times, and drives elderly people to their doctors' appointments. (A local hunters' charity just gave them several hundred pounds of venison.) The Episcopal church, which attracts local liberals, provides lunch every day for a hundred high-school kids and anyone else who wanders in hungry. All of the churches have banded together to form a new charity that taps the talents of local contractors by doing free home repairs for the elderly. When the wrestling coach was diagnosed with ALS, locals set up annual fundraisers to help him and his family. When a clerk at the local pharmacy, a single African-American mom, fell on hard times, word spread on Facebook, and the community, which is mostly rural and white, raised $2,000 for her within 48 hours.<br /><br />I don't mean for any of this to imply that I live in some libertarian paradise. It's not, and our communities out here have more than their share of problems. But what I'm struck by, as I go into my second year here, is the extent to which all of us, liberal and conservative and in-between, truly need each other to make this place work. I like to believe we'll find that's true of the country as a whole, too, once all the back-and-forth screaming dies down. Until then, I'm thinking and acting locally, and giving national politicians as little power over my thoughts, my mood, and my interactions with others as I possibly can.Jeffhttp://www.quidplura.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6693471143220681808.post-56954018484885387472016-11-10T09:35:44.738-05:002016-11-10T09:35:44.738-05:00Here's hopin'! I do wish we would all thin...Here's hopin'! I do wish we would all think as in your quotation -- work on ourselves, first.imagine if each person did that... Imagine the change that coudl be affected... Chris Matarazzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17885109959459471509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6693471143220681808.post-70509718796241579792016-11-09T17:53:05.264-05:002016-11-09T17:53:05.264-05:00Blame, anger and theatrics surely won't help. ...Blame, anger and theatrics surely won't help. If calm minds prevail, as you suggest, then perhaps creative ideas and solutions will eventually follow.<br /><br />It is not possible<br />To control all external events<br />But, if I simply control my mind,<br />What need is there to control other things?<br />—Shantidevathesycamoretreehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15182019323050600440noreply@blogger.com